SCOUTER

NICE JOB! Love the dual color lacing! Awesome!

Very nice design on both the kife and sheath, I like the one handed sheath release- sweet!

Beautiful work and GREAT lacing!

Bruce, Beautiful job all around! Amazing stitching! I too have had blotching problems, in fact my last gun rig came out so un-even that I re-dyed the entire project BLACK. Now that seems to cover ok!

As always Don beautiful work! Looks soft and comfortable! Thanks for posting!

Bravo Marlon! Great Work as always!!!!!!!!!!

OUTSTANDING!

Welcome! Believe it or not this dilemma is more common then you think! The more you work with Leather the more you will want to try new projects and eventually you will want some nice stitiching to finish off a proiject. Hand stitching is by far the best way to assemble projects, however it is an art. Those that can do it well deserve praise because it takes time, effort and skill to make good looking stitches. Machine stitching is the next best choice but many machines are costly and do involve a bit of a learning curve. If you are doing small projects like a Knife sheath or small case you can get by with hand stitching, but if you plan to do belts or bigger projects a machine can be a blessing. Here is what i found to be the basics; Hand Stitching- A good awl, needles, good thread, bees wax, Al Stolhmans book on Hand Stitching, Stitching horse cost to start about $60- Tipmann Boss- An entry level machine that you can learn on is easy to operate and when you are ready to move up to a better machine you can sell for very close to what you paid for it! Cost $1400- Artisan Leather StitcherToro 3000- The "Cat's Pajamas" for crafters. The machine that everyone loves! Will do everything you need and more Cost- $2200- Whatever you choose good luck and remember to have fun!

A very nice "clean" design! Nice stitching!

WOW! Nice work! Mules rule!

Chuck should know, he has been kicking out awesome stuff for years! Great topic!

JBIRD, Nice work... Question- Do you use any backing when tooling? (Backing like tape, rubber-cemented cardboard, plexiglass...) Are you tooling the belt as it is?

Timbo! Awesome rig! Great stitching, tooling and COLOR! Very nice work! I also noticed a sweet canteen on that pretty Paint. Did you make that also? Where was that pic taken? In CO or MO? Great work and thanks for posting!

Kevin, It's always so nice to see your stuff! What an inspiration!

Hans- Great item to fool with! I have that same twisted DNA strand- Over-do-it! We are not alone! It's funny because I had just about all i could handle after Years of collecting and then, like you, people pass away and you aquire their stuff! I have a tough time throwing good stuff away but now I am tripping over it! My good friend told me a saying that stayed with me forever. "It's easier to buy then to sell" I should tattoo that on my arm! Good Luck! P.S. It's always a few months after you get rid of someting that you NEED it.

Howdy- I am making a western style gun belt and I am ready to sew some bullet loops. The only problem is that I feel there must be a better way. People have told me that many times loops will stretch out causing lost cartridges. Has anyone come up with a way to add some bullets to the sides/back of a western gunbelt that looks good and works better? I am toying with the idea of making a separate piece of leather with loops that I can snap on to the belt. Advantages-1- Can be repaired quickly. 2- Can use different ammo for different guns. It seems like a good idea but I wonder how it will keep close to the belt and not look like an add on. Thanks for any imput!

Learn from the best- John Bianchi- Nobody does it better... DVDs available from smartflix

Buffalo, AMAZING! Great dye job and tooling to die for...

Don- It's always great to see your stuff! Great job as always!

Leather is a real bear to cut unless the blade is very sharp. A sharp head knife is just a pleasure to use and with all knives it's very important to have the proper under-surface to cut on. (like a POLY sheet) I picked up one of those office chair poly mats from Staples and it works great.

Peter's stuff is always EYE CANDY for Leatherworkers!!!!

JUST BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing!

What a beautiful gift and work of art! Outstanding!

I'm sure those of you west of the Mississippi are laughing, but I want to add a chin cord to my western hat so when I have a death grip on the reins my hat dosen't fly off. again (100 years ago this would have been common knowledge) I thought I would punch two holes in the brim of the hat just forward of the ears, insert some type of grommet, (what type?) and run the cord up thru one side around the back of the hat and down the other side. I looked for those small "vent" style grommets but nothing looks right. Thanks for any help!